Play toys or no play toys?

[mizenkoj]

I am in the process of training my first versatile hunting dog and I have noticed the dog likes to shake his play toy. I am concerned he's going to take that conditioning to his first bird. Is this valid or something not to worry about. What do you do to address his chewing needs if you don't allow play toys and work with just pumpers to begin to instill his prey and retrieve drives.

[mnaj_springer]

Welcome to the forum.

How old is the pup?

Generally, I take no issue with toys, as long as they have no squeaker. If I receive a dog toy as a gift, then I take the squeaker out (people have a hard time understanding I like toys too ). But otherwise the dogs usually know the difference between a play toy and bumper or bird. Kong makes some great toys for chewing. They are nearly indestructible.

[Neil]

Toys

[Timewise65]

In retriever training we take the dog through 'force fetch' conditioning. This process has dramatically changed over the years and is generally not done using pressure as it used to be, but we still get the same results! A soft mouth dog that delivers to hand and drops on command! I know a few gun dog owners that chose to skip this part of training, and have dogs that tear up and/or eat shot birds.....not a good thing and difficult to stop after they start!

[getzapped]

My pup shakes, tears and tugs at her toys, but not to bumpers or birds. I learned if there arw no toys, she will find something to use as a toy like shoes,bras, underwear, flowerpots, waterbottles. Etc...

[CDN_Cocker]

Its a dog... give it some toys lol. Toys and birds are completely different to a dog.

[Sharon]

Only my terrier likes toys. The setters could care less. Terriers always rip out the eye balls in the stuffed animal first.

[shags]

LOL! Eyeballs, ears, stuffing...then strut around with the pelt.

OP, your dog will figure out the difference between a stuffie and a bird. Let him rip!